The beautiful stamp of the art deco Chrysler Building in New York and the building's 75th anniversary reminds me of an idea I had more than a year ago. Use an annual "semi-postal" stamp featuring historic buildings to direct additional funds to the Federal Historic Preservation Fund, which is used to fund historic preservation activities at the state level.
This fund supports cultural resource surveys, education, and the operation of state historic preservation offices. Note: this fund has never been appropriated the full funding authorized in the original legislation, and the amount available to each state and territory is less than $750,000 annually.
The US Postal Service website defines a semi-postal stamp thusly:
The U.S. Postal Service currently has three 45-cent fundraising or "semipostal" stamps available for purchase: the Breast Cancer Research stamp, the Heroes of 2001 stamp, and the Stop Family Violence stamp.
The price of a semipostal pays for the First-Class single-piece postage rate in effect at the time of purchase plus an amount to fund causes that the Postal Service determines to be in the national public interest and appropriate. By law, revenue from sales (minus postage and the reasonable costs of the Postal Service) is to be transferred to a selected executive agency or agencies.
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Stamps do have great power. I still remember the first time I saw these stamps as a child. (OTOH, the use of stamps is unfortunately declining as the Internet increasingly supplants the first class mail stream. OTOH/2, it is increasing the use of stamps for the mail of packages of items sold via ebay.)
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